Fake Smiles
by AfraidOfGrowingUp
Summary: negative times negative equals positive, right? [AU]
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first story being posted. I've been wanting to write something for a while now. This idea kind of came to me when I was heading to school around 5 days ago, finally was able to write it a couple of days ago when my brother was watching a basketball match on TV.**

**By the way while you read you'll probably realize Joy's life isn't so bad, but later on on the story you'll see how it really is. And also you'll get to see more of Joy's thoughts**

**WARNING**

**Mention of self-harm, depression, suicide thoughts. That's so far since I'm not exactly sure how much more things I'm gonna add, probably a eating disorder.**

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_**I. Joy**_

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_Joy Mercer, we are glad to inform you that you've been accepted in Anubis University-_

She didn't need to read more, the letter instantly fell to the floor and a smile appeared on her lips.  
She had made it. She had been accepted on Anubis University!  
Her smile was bigger, bigger than ever. For the first time in a long time, she felt as if her smile was genuine. She didn't feel like it was fake, but all she could think about was University. She'll be going to Liverpool. She was finally getting away from her messed up family. It was her escape! It _was_ her escape!

Even if she had always wanted to leave. Even if she thought her family was a mess. She had pretended for them for so long, that she had to keep the act. The smile was real, so there wasn't much act this time. She walked into the kitchen, where she knew her mum and dad were. With the smile still in her face, but the letter forgotten, she yelled:

"I was accepted!"

Her parents' faces broke into huge grins. Her mother hugged her and as always she pretended she wasn't uncomfortable with it. Her dad did the same, without knowing pressing too much making the cuts on her hip hurt.

"My baby girl is going to University!" Said her mother

"I'm so happy," said her dad

"I'm happy too" said Joy "but when I'm not" she joked.

She kept the smile, but she replied to herself:

_Always_

**···**

The last day of high school. The last class of the day. She couldn't help it; she wanted to leave already. School was hell. Even if her mask was ticker at school, and no one knew how broken she was. She had to see all the other skinny, perfect girls. She hated herself more every time she saw them. Also, there were two lovely jocks that teased her every day. She wanted to get away. She just wanted to leave the city. She wanted to leave London. And she was finally going to do it.

The bell finally went off, and she yelled:

"Yay!"

Half the class turned to look at her. All she had ever desire for was attention and affection. But she really hated this kind of attention. She blushed a little, which was contracted a lot with her pale skin.

"You really live to your name, right, _Joy_," said a ginger haired girl, that Joy only knew was going to Yale.

"It seems like I do" lied the broken girl, as she left her classroom.

She was just able to walk a little bit when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She played with sleeves, making sure her arms were completely covered, before she turned around.

Lucas Holden. He stood there in all his glory. A school jock, perfect styled dark hair, brown eyes that shined, and a perfectly build body. Every girl wanted him. He just wanted to get in every girl's pants.

"Hey, Joy" he said

"Hey" she said not looking at him

"I'm giving a party at my place, 8 pm, I was wondering if you'll like to come?"

Joy shrugged. She hated parties. She had only been to 2 or 3 and she already knew she didn't like them. Loud music, dancing, drunken teenagers, couples making out in every corner… no, not her style.

"I'll think about it" she said as she turned around and continued her way on leaving the school.

**···**

Joy never went to the party, nor to any she had been invited to during the summer.

There was only 1 more week of summer, and she already had all her things ready for University. She was leaving in two days and she couldn't wait.

The scars on her arm had started to disappear; they were fading away. It tended to be like that every summer. But that didn't mean that her thighs were safe.

She had packed her razors, hidden on her make up case. She didn't have much make up, but it was enough to cover her razor blades.

No one knew what she did to herself. No one knew how broken she was. No one knew how much she hated herself. All they knew was her fake smile. Her fake attitude. The world thought Joy Mercer was so real. So secure of her self. So full of... _joy._

_I'm not like that_

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**Next Chapter would be Joy arriving at University. Hope you've like it. I might have to warn most of you that this story might go really dark. This is not really that ****_dark_**** but it might really get dark as the story goes on. **

**By the way I'll like to say that I've got exams coming in a week or so, but'll try to write the next chapter before it. And my chapters are going to be actually long from now on, at least 1,000 words if that's enough**

**Review**


	2. Chapter 2

**Its fucking 2AM do not expect a long Author Note.**

**TRIGGER WARNING**

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_**II. Joy**_

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Joy expected, at least, her parents to be for breakfast in this special day. But of course, they were not.  
She found a note pasted to her Orange Juice glass_: an emergency at work, had to leave early. Mum_

_Typical excuse_, thought Joy, who by now was already used to this. She remembered when she was around the age of 5, and it would take her 2 minutes to read the note, she would think her parents were superheroes and they were somewhere out there saving the world. Of course, those thoughts soon banished, and she was left with the thoughts she still has and is so afraid of.

Joy grabbed her glass and started walking around the house. She had never liked to seat in the table to eat, she would rather walk around or watch TV. The fact that seating and being all alone, not having someone who would talk to her, someone who would ask her something, someone who would make her company while she ate, was the reason she would rather not seat and face a plain boring white wall. And it wasn't like she was going to eat anything, anyway.

Soon after, the orange juice had disappeared, and Joy went on search for her backpack. A taxi would be in her front door any time soon, and she would be finally on her way to University.  
She wanted to have everything ready, she didn't want to forget anything important. She of course, had already checked her backpack at least 9 times but she was sure something was missing. She had that feeling in which she felt like she was forgetting something; she had always been like it, even if nothing was being forgotten. But then, there was nothing wrong in checking again.

**...**

Don't Let Me Go by The Summer Set, blasted from her earbuds as she got off the taxi and paid the driver.  
As soon as Joy got off the taxi she was amazed by Anubis University, it was enormous. The classrooms where in the centre it was two 6 floored building with at least ten rooms per floor. To the classrooms' left there was a football court, a basketball, American football, volleyball, and tennis courts too. To the right were the dorms, 6 tall building each one of five floors.

Joy watched as the taxi drove away and grabbed her luggage, which wasn't much to be sincere. Joy had never been one to want –need– a lot of clothing, of course, she didn't dressed in whatever she found thrown somewhere in her room, she did try to look somehow presentable and it didn't matter where she was going.

Joy went to the secretary room, she had problems arriving but she managed. She was told her dorm room and was given her timetable. She said her thanks and left. She had now to go to her room, which she didn't know where it was, she considered walking back in and asking for direction but she didn't want to talk to that lady again. Joy wasn't afraid of her, nor did she find her creepy, Joy just didn't like talking to strangers, much less and old woman who kept telling her what a lovely time she'll have and the amount of friends she'll make.

Joy walked for a while, completely lost, she felt stupid. She felt like the other teenagers who were walking through the university, were thinking of the lost newbie and laughing. She had always felt like people were looking at her every move, felt like they were judging her, felt like she was the reason of their laugher, and she hated it. She hated hearing her name and then hearing laugher, it made her think they were laughing at her, even if they mentioned her name 15 minutes before it, making her feel quite stupid.

She had no choice, she had to ask someone or she'll spend all her time wandering around Anubis University. She spotted a guy, who seemed her age, seating on a bench, reading a book: _The Solar System Is Your Friend_

_Quite weird_, thought Joy_, to find a 17-years-old reading that kind of book._

Though, it was rare for Joy she found it funny. She let a tiny smile play on her face as she approached the boy. His hair was a dark –really dark– shade of brown, his eyes were a blue-ish green shade and they lighten up with every line he read of his book. He had an old brown messenger bag by his side with more books, which were slightly getting out of the bag.

As if noticing the sudden shadow, he looked up meeting his eyes with Joy's.

"Uh… may I help you?" he asked kindly, Joy noticed the nervousness on his voice and had the urge to smile a little thinking that that might be the way everybody hears her.

"Uh…" Joy hadn't thought what to say to the boy, she didn't know what to say and she was already nervous to talk to him–anyone really. "Can you help get to my dorm, I've just arrived and I'm quite lost" she had the urge to ran away from him in that moment, she had said everything so fast, barely taking a breath, that she thought he might think she was crazy,

Instead, he closed his book placed it on his bag, stood up and said in a still nervous voice "Oh sure. I'm Fabian, by the way. Anyway, which is your building letter?"

"I'm Joy" she said, a little bit less awkward this time. She checked the paper the secretary had given her, read it until she found the building letter "uh… Letter C"

He nodded and signalled her to follow; she didn't hesitate. Every once in a while Fabian would look back just to make sure Joy was following and send her a reassuring smile. They didn't talked in the way, and somehow it wasn't awkward, at least not for Joy. The walk wasn't long though, soon enough they were in front of building letter C.

"Here you are" he said, "mind if I ask your room number?"

"Not really" she looked through the papers again "twenty-eight" she finally said

"I'm pretty sure that is on the second floor" he sent her a smile and said "Well nice to meet you, Joy, maybe I'll see you later" with that he turned on his heel and walked away.

Joy stared at the building for a while before finally walking in. She wanted, and at the same time didn't, to meet her roommate. She just hoped for it not to be a nosy roommate who would look through her things or grabbed her things.

She found her room, just as Fabian had said, on the second floor. Surprisingly, the door was open and Joy quickly walked in. Joy had thought she'll find an empty room or a girly girl with a pinky bed set, but what she found was the total opposite. Black and red luggage in a corner of the room, a bed half made and a redhead seating in it, who as soon as she saw Joy said:

"Who are you?"

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**Hope you liked it. By the way, I don't know how Uni is so if you are a University student, and know I've got something wrong please don't hesitate in telling me. Now I should go to sleep.**

**Review**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm pretty sure this Chapter is around the same length as the last one. And more character are going to be introduced in this chapter (and one of your beloved couples would meet).**

**Hope you like! **

**TRIGGER WARNING (none in this chapter really)**

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_**III. Joy**_

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Joy had never actually been good when it came to meeting people and actually talking with them. So when the redhead had to ask who she was again, it was no surprise.

"Joy" she answered, trying for her voice to come out as more than a whisper "your roommate"

"Oh. Brilliant!" said the redhead girl with sarcasm "my roomie"

Joy decided to ignore her (clearly, this girl wasn't pleased with having a roommate, but there was nothing Joy could do about it, right) as she walked to the empty bed on the room and gathered all her courage to just say "May... I ask your name?" yes, it was quite possible that Joy Mercer was somehow socially awkward. But she never actually had friends on secondary school, nor did she on primary. There were the normal "hellos" to people who walked on the corridors but most of them had known Joy since she was 6 or 7 so it wasn't that difficult to talk to them. But when it came to people she had never seen before in her life... she was terrified, not a single word would come out of her mouth. She had grown to expect the worst of someone. And staring at the Goth redhead she expected quite bad things.

"Patricia Williamson" she said in her tick British accent. Joy wondered from what part of England this girl came from.

Joy turned around, starting to unpack. Just for her luck, the first thing she pulled out was a copy of the second Twilight book.

"That book," Patricia said "never understood why so many people liked it"

Joy turned to face Patricia "you don't like it?" she asked, wondering how someone couldn't like a love story like Bella and Edward's

"I haven't even read it. I'm not really into vampires love stories, really any love stories to be more specific" certainly, Patricia didn't seemed like the kind of girl who would die to read another "and they lived happily ever after" kind of story "My sister has read it, though, and she was in love with this wolf dude"

Patricia had made a big mistake. Joy was the kind of girl who if you were going to mention one of the books she loved, you had to he prepared for it. If she started talking about it, nothing would stop her.

And that's pretty much what happened.

As Joy kept rambling about Twilight, she forgot she didn't know this girl, she forgot how afraid she was. She forgot everything; in that moment it was just Joy and her knowledge on Twilight.

Only ten minutes onto Joy's rant, Patricia had already decided to never read Twilight, though, she let the petite girl continue. 15 minutes later, Patricia stopped her:

"I'm starving. You can continue telling me about Twilight-and its world of vampires, werewolf, and useless main characters–down on the coffee shop" she stood up and head to the door

"Ok" said Joy as she followed her. She kept talking about Twilight on the way, though

The Cafe wasn't exactly big. A sweet women named Trudy owned it, and even if Joy wasn't hungry the middle age women gave her one of the cookies that was on the bowl, not asking for the money.

Patricia bought a big cookie and a cup of dark coffee. She signalled Joy a table and the two teenagers sat. Patricia had, on their way to the café, changed the topic of Twilight (already annoyed by "Edward and Bella went…" and "Jacob clearly didn't know…") to herself. She told Joy a little bit about her sister–which Patricia didn't seem to be in the best terms with–and then she asked Joy if she had any siblings. Joy truthfully, answered that no and soon made the topic change to Patricia again. Joy didn't like talking about herself, much less of her family.

As Patricia kept telling her about her life, Joy scanned the place. It was almost empty, 2 tables away seats a tall black haired boy with a piercing on his right eyebrow. The cafe is also a bookstore, and a dark haired boy is engrossed in a Harry Potter book. The boy is incredibly familiar to Joy. The boy looked up from his book, as feeling someone staring at him. Blue-ish green eyes lock with the plain brown eyes of Joy.

"Hey Joy" Fabian said as he stood up, brushed some crumbs off his blue t-shirt and made his way to Joy and Patricia.

"Do you know him?" asked Patricia

"Somehow" shrugged Joy

Fabian looked at Patricia and waved "Hi. I'm Fabian"

"Patricia" she waved as well

Fabian was about to say something when a tall blonde walked in. He scanned the place with icy blue eyes, soon his eyes landed on Patricia. A smirk played on his lips as he approached to the redhead. On the other hand, Patricia didn't seem to be quite pleased with seeing the tall blonde.

"Trixie!" He exclaimed

_Trixie?_ Thought Joy

"Didn't think I would see you here" he continued

"I was actually hoping I would never see you again in my life, Jerome" she snapped

"But if we were so good friends at school" he said, putting his right hand on his chest, were the heart was supposed to be.

"Yeah... wonderful friends" she said with sarcasm

Joy looked at Fabian; he was as confused as her.

Jerome smiled "Have you poured any beverage in someone's head already"

_What?_

Patricia looked at Jerome, then she glared "no" was her answer. She stood up and said, "I'm not going to stay here with this thing" she pointed at Jerome "here"

Patricia grabbed her cup of coffee and started heading to the door. Jerome was still smirking, Fabian seemed quite confused and Joy was still debating with herself in whether she should follow Patricia or stay there.

Just to her luck Patricia bumped with a beach blonde boy coming into the café.

"Watch where you're going!" she shouted

"Watch where _you_ are going, Hermione" the blonde boy snapped.

"Oh, wonderful, exactly what we needed. A patronizing American whose only reference of the UK is Harry Potter" she said, "Who are you anyway"

The blonde smiled "who are you?"

"I asked first"

He laughed "really?"

Patricia looked already annoyed "next time you bump with someone consider that it is polite to apologize in this country"

"Do you ever stop talking" he smirked "I should call you Blabs, or Yacker," he laughed a little. He then pointed at Patricia, his smirk never leaving "Yacker"

"And maybe I should call you a cab back to the airport" she looked quite angry, Joy noticed

"Oh, devastating" the boy clapped

Patricia was holding her cup of coffee tightly

"Here it comes," said Jerome in barely a whisper

Patricia raised the cup and poured the coffee on the boy's head. The boy had a startled expression.

She looked pleased with herself "As much as I would love to stay here trading stereotypes, I think I'm gonna go hang somewhere else" with that she left

The boy covered in hot coffee turned to look at them–Fabian, Jerome and Joy

Jerome, who didn't find this strange, was still grinning when he said, "she does that"

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**TADA! I like Jerome here. but i'm still having problems with writing Joy. You see, I'm not used to writing characters out of character, and well... Joy has–needs–to be out of character for this story, not much but still a little bit.**

**that's it i suppose.**

**oh, btw, I've never read Twilight nor do I want to. It's just that Joy liking Twilight was mentioned on the first Episode (before she disappeared) and well... yeah.**

**PS- I had to look for my Harry Potter book so I could write ****_Hermione_****, 'cause guys I always forget how her name is written.**

**PPS- If you had noticed the summary was _negative PLUS negative equals positive, right _but god, i was so wrong. I can't even believe I made that kind of mistake, its actually [in math and all that] (-) x (-) = (+) so the summary should be _negative times negative equals __positive_. Sorry for you who hate maths, having to read this minute math class, but i just wanted to point out my mistake. I'm quite good at math, tbh, so i just can't get how I forgot that it was times and not plus.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Its been a while right? Almost a month...**

**i'm sorry**

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**_IV. Jerome_**

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Jerome had to admit that it was funny when he wasn't the one with beverage poured on him.

He stared at Patricia's latest victim. The boy was staring at the door, his eyes following the redhead. Jerome decided that he was different; he wasn't scared as a lot of guys that talked with Patricia. He was somewhat angry but he still had turned around to see her leaving.

"Oh Lord, sweeties, what happened here" he heard the sweet voice of the cafe owner. Her eyes focused on the boy's head and the coffee damped floor.

Jerome noticed how the boy blinked a couple of times before turning around and answering the women. He had been in a daze or deeply thinking, for the matter.

Jerome turned to see the others. A boy and a girl. By no means they could be dating, they were too far from each other. They couldn't be friends either; they weren't totally comfortable with each other company. But they couldn't be strangers. He finally decided that they were people who had just met and were hoping for friendship.

The black haired guy looked terrified—scared, maybe—and concerned.

But she... she was much more interesting, she was fighting a smile, a laugh. And when she let her lips stretch a little, he was amazed. It didn't seem like something the girl was used to, it didn't seem natural. She finally let her lips form a smile and a little laugh as she stared at the blonde still covered on coffee. Just as before the girl seemed to be new to the art of smiling and laughing. It reminded Jerome when he was a kid and through summer had learnt to ride a bicycle. He soon returned to school and didn't ride his bicycle anymore. Next summer he didn't ride it either, he didn't ride it for 5 years and when he tried again—already by the age of 12—he couldn't, he fell when he tried and he had felt stupid. He had forgotten how to ride a bike but this girl had forgotten how to genuinely smile.

Jerome hated school and hadn't actually learnt a lot of things while there, but he was glad for just one thing, just one thing he had learnt and became quite good at. He could read people, just as a bookworm could read a book. But this girl was somewhat difficult—different. And he felt like a dyslexic, he couldn't read her, at least not completely.

"Got a lovely friend there," the blond said, his American accent way too obvious, now glaring at their table as the women disappeared possibly going to look for a rag to clean the floor.

"Yes. She is lovely" Jerome joked, but he could see it in the blonde's eyes. He wanted to know her. He had that kind of look that tells you that someone is mad with someone, but also a glint of curiosity—a need to know them.

The women returned and cleaned the floor. The boy sent them a last glare, whispered a sorry to the women, who nodded and smiled at him as he left the café.

The petite girl turned to look at the boy next to her, stood up and catch up with the women who was already leaving with the dirty rag and said "Trudy!" the women turned around and the brunette continued "Sorry for Patricia"

The women, Trudy, gave her a warm smile and said, "don't worry sweetie" then she went behind the counter again. The girl looked at the boy who smiled at her, she just walked out of the café.

Jerome turned to look at the boy "and we are two"

He nodded and asked "Jerome, right?"

"Yes. You?"

"Fabian"

"Nice to meet you" Jerome felt uncomfortable and he knew Fabian did as well

"What are you majoring in?" Fabian's eyes turned to the back of the café, where a small library was.

"This is awkward" the nerdy-boy let out a breath and Jerome continued "go back to your books and I'll leave" he stood up and made his was out.

Once out he turned around to see how Fabian turned to the bookstand, grabbed the book he suspected he had been reading before, and sat. He looked at home, a peaceful home.

**...**

"Uh… hello?" Jerome dragged the word. As far as he could remember, there was no one but him on his room when he had left. Yet there he was, a dark-skinned boy with a goofy smile and colourful clothing.

"I'm Alfie!" he said joyfully. He seemed like a joker, the laid-back kind. But he seemed fine, a good guy. Jerome could even see them being friends.

"I'm Jerome" he smiled at him "I'm supposing you are my roommate"

He nodded and soon they fell into an endless conversation. He told him what he was majoring in and a bunch of possibly pointless facts about himself. Jerome found himself telling him a little bit about himself, but no much.

Through their conversation Jerome laughed a lot, and the boy kept making jokes. The two of them talked, not really thinking, there was no need to it, and their topics were totally random and both of them seemed to be paying completely attention to one another. Until Alfie mentioned his parents, then is when Jerome lost himself. He didn't like talking about his family, his broken family. He hated both his mother and father, and refused to even think of his sister. It was a topic he would rather avoid making it a nonexistence knowledge for others.

"Hey? Are you okay?" asked Alfie. The dark-skinned boy looked at him, like trying to see past him. Trying to understand him more.

He took a deep breath, put on a convincing smile, and made his voice more steady "Yes. Totally fine"

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**So... I was going to post this is on Saturday but you know family things, as well as on Sunday. And on Monday I was just there trying to do some school work. Right now, I've got a major headache so I'm not really on the mood for actually doing something yet here I am posting because it's been a month and you had heard nothing from me. **

**you see, I'm a procrastinator (does that word exists?), and I only work if I've got deadlines and to be honest if I put those myself, it doesn't work. I had my 2 to 3 weeks max. to update and, as you can see, it didn't work. **

**Well... hope ya had like it.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm so sorry. I was going to update earlier but I'm so bad at this kind of things. And I have been barely able to concentrate on this**

**Isis (Guest) said: Awesome story! But you do know that then phrase is "negative PLUS negative equals positive"**

** -Ok, you reviewed on chapter 2 so I don't blame you, but I when I first wrote the summary I wrote that but since I was guiding me from Math, I was wrong. If you sum two negative numbers it won't always give you a positive numbers, while if you multiply two negative numbers it will always give you a positive number :)**

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_**V. Jerome**_

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He should be sleeping, not thinking about the brown eyed girl.

A day went by and unfortunately he didn't see Patricia. Alfie was as always joking but he knew when to be serious (Jerome liked him because of it. As much as he liked funny people, he needed for people to know when to stop). He barely remembered the nerdy guy form the coffee shop. But the girl was constantly brought back to his mind. Her brown eyes showing fear while pulling her sleeves over her hands. She was more uncomfortable as soon as Patricia left, making her leave the cafe as soon as she could. She was interesting, Jerome finally decided.

Now, he was lying in his bed staring at the ceiling. His mind going anywhere: from the crack on the roof to the moonlight coming through the window. Trying to take the girl out of his mind, but it seemed impossible.

Listening to Alfie's almost silent snores, he slowly fell asleep.

—

Jerome wasn't one to make friends wherever he went, he preferred already knowing the people. When he was younger (around 9) he changed schools and he remembers crying when he returned home. At the time he had been such an introvert but as the years went by he changed a bit, he still wasn't an extrovert but he wasn't an anti-social either.

He walked into his class room expecting to see no one (since it was early) yet Fabian was already seating there. His books had already been open as he read the first pages of them, his eyes scanning the words printed and not even noticing Jerome's arrival.

"Hey!" Jerome said trying to get his attention. Fabian finally looked up "So we meet again, Fabian whatever-your-surname-is"

Fabian smiled at Jerome and said "Hello, Jerome, It seems like we are having a class together"

Jerome wanted to reply with some sarcastic come back, and he probably would have, but the guy seemed nice and ready to go back to his book, so he just nodded and head to his seat. He placed his things in one of the tables on the last rows—he had never been one to seat at the front and he was sure he would never be.

Slowly people started filling the big classroom. Between all the heads, he found a familiar redhead.

"Patricia! Glad to see you here too" Jerome exclaimed

"Oh god, kill me" Patricia muttered "why do I keep seeing you, I thought high school would be the end but it is like you are following me"

"Oh, please Patricia" he shook his head "of course I'm not following you. No man—person—on his right mind would do that"

"That's why I was wondering" she replied as she sent him a sassy smile. He rolled his eyes as he followed the redhead path. Just then he noticed that the brown haired girl from the cafe was behind her, hiding between the people and following Patricia like a slave.

He wanted to know her name; he wanted to know something about her—anything. Something about that girl drew him in. It had been a while since he had thought of anyone like that. Everyone was so boring—so uninteresting. He, for the matter, knew he wasn't that fascinating... and he didn't mind. But those who were intriguing, those who were different, those who didn't walk with the crowd, those people were worth meeting. Worth talking to. Worth whatever problem they could give. Worth everything.

He still remembers the first time he noticed Patricia: they were 12 or 13 (their first year of secondary school) and she had walked in, already late, to their Math class with purple, pink and blue hair extensions. The teacher had told her that she couldn't come like that to school and Patricia had rolled her eyes and sat on the only empty seat which was next to Jerome. He had been surprised when she appeared on the door with her coloured head, and quite impressed. She was worth it, he decided at such young age. They became friends, and they still were even if they acted like they totally hated each other. Their friendship had always been like it and he didn't want for it to change.

"Oh no! Not you _two._ Maybe one, but not _both_ of you" Patricia's voice took him out of his flashback. She was staring at some dude that had just walked in. It was the guy from the coffee shop; the one Patricia had spilled her coffee on.

Jerome laughed "Oh, please. You barely know him; you can't despise him that much"

"Probably not... but still" Patricia said letting out a breath "but I know _you _well enough to despise you"

"In that you are correct" he said sending a wink at Patricia

Patricia was about to say something but the brown eyed/haired girl cut her off "Patricia, stop it already" the redhead didn't say anything. Jerome wondered how a girl that Patricia could have possible just met a couple of days before, told her to do something and she had done it. He remembered all their teachers back at school, all the teachers Patricia had no respect for. Every rule Patricia had broken. All the times Patricia had been told to calm down and she had never done it. But, now, a petite girl made Patricia stop.

"Are you two dating and have this 'I hate you' kind of relationship, or…" both Patricia and Jerome turned to look, with wide eyes, at the American boy. The boy, who was still pointing at both of them, looked at their expressions and shrugged.

Jerome wondered how people didn't turn to look at them, why weren't they even listening to what they were doing, that was what boring people did, right? Listen to someone else conversation to gossip about later. He hated it, but that was the world he had been punished to live in.

"I would never date someone like him" blurted Patricia. The boy shrugged again and smirked

Fabian finally looked up from his book, trying to understand what was happening. When he saw the blond American he smiled a little "Oh! Eddie, I didn't know you'll be on this class"

The American smiled too and made his way next to the geeky boy "Nice to see ya here, roomie"

Fabian seemed a bit uncomfortable, they didn't seem to be anything alike (if Jerome was asked, he would say Patricia was the more compatible with Eddie. But he wasn't that stupid, he knew Patricia would kill him if she heard it come out of his mouth) so he looked over his shoulder at the girl next to Patricia and said "Nice to see you here too, Joy"

Just then their teacher walked in.

_Joy._ Her name was Joy

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**This was going to be much longer but I wanted to post it now. Oh, btw, how are you liking the characters so far? Idk, but I like writing jerome... it's hard, but I like it.**

**thnks fr rdng**


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